Building bridges between all communities
Issue link: http://publications.winnipegfreepress.com/i/272116
MARCH 2014 • PAGE 5 Living well with diabetes requires many different health care professionals working with you to help you reach your goals. Your pharmacist is one of the most accessible of those team members and is there to help you in a variety of ways. Some of the services that they can offer you are new for 2014 since the laws for what pharmacists can do have been recently updated. You might be surprised by the variety of ways they can help next time you visit your pharmacist! Your pharmacist is your medication expert and can help answer your questions or provide assistance with your medication therapies. One of the roles your pharmacist plays is to make sure that you get the most benefit from your medications. They ensure that the medicines prescribed for you are appropriate, given in the correct dose, frequency and time of day and that they will not cause harm in combination with your other medicines or medical conditions. They can sit down with you and do a Medication Review, which is a thorough review of your medicines including your vitamins and herbal therapies to ensure compatibility and to help you feel more confident in your knowledge about your medicines. If you find it a challenge to remember to take your medicines as prescribed, they can make recommendations on how to make that easier. Pharmacists and their team are also in an excellent position to teach you how to use your blood glucose meters as well as recommending when the best time is to take those readings and what to do with the results. They can teach you how to inject your insulin and other injected medicines or, soon, will be able to inject the medications for you. They can even give you ideas about changes that you can make to your eating habits or activities that can improve your health and energy levels! It's important when you have diabetes, that you receive your annual influenza vaccine. Talk to your pharmacist about this important immunization as well as other vaccinations. Your pharmacist is now also able to adapt your prescription, meaning they can changes the strength, frequency or formulation of a drug, when appropriate. Many pharmacists will also be able to prescribe for some common medical problems such as athlete's foot, acne, smoking cessation, morning sickness as well as skin rashes and allergies. As a highly trusted and accessible primary care provider, your pharmacist can help you in many ways. They can provide you with excellent guidance and education on issues about diabetes management and other health care concerns. They can also provide you with some new services that can help you access medical help more quickly and conveniently. Many other services, like prescription renewals and bubble packaging continue to be available as they have in the past, however, some services require a fee as not all are currently covered under provincial benefits. Talk to your pharmacist today to see which services would benefit you the most! Britt Kural B.Sc. Pharm., CDE Manitoba Society of Pharmacists, Professional Relations YOUR PHARMACIST: HELPING YOU LIVE BETTER WITH DIABETES